Through our Best of the Bunch series, we gave a recap on the Eurovision entries from 2006 to 2015 and gave you the opportunity to choose your Best of the Bunch. As you may remember, the current Best of the Bunch winners were put into our ‘Ultimate Eurovision’ but it’s time to see which of the latest three entries have remained as your favourites! In our Best of the Bunch: The Trials series, we are going to recap the entries from a certain nation starting with 2016 and continuing through to the latest Eurovision season of 2018. Your job is to simply enjoy the music, and vote for your Best of the Bunch winner!
Today we are travelling to a nation that has only found success in more recent years, but has a promising future at Eurovision. We are of course talking about the Czech Republic, who in the scheme of things are still relatively new to Eurovision. They first made their debut in 2007, where unfortunately they finished in last place in the semi-final with only 1 point! Things didn’t improve much for the nation with two 18th place finishes, (one of which with the dreaded nul points), but after a few years of non-participation, they came back with a vengeance! You can read more about their previous entries in our Best of the Bunch: Czech Republic, however today we are looking at their three most recent entries, starting with 2016!
Czech Republic 2016
We are starting on a positive, in fact, the first positive of the Czech history at Eurovision! After a close call in 2015 with the duo of Marta and Václav, it was about time we saw the nation reach the Eurovision final. The responsibility was placed on Gabriela Gunčiková with her ballad I Stand. Up to that point, it was perhaps the most contemporary entry we had seen from the Czech Republic, and with a beautiful but simple stage performance, this would surely be the year we saw the nation in the final! Qualifying in at 9th place, it was still a close call, but regardless of the position, we would finally see the Czech Republic in the Eurovision final. In the final, it didn’t make a huge impact on the televoters, failing to receive any points from the public, but 41 jury points pushed the song into 25th place. Small steps for Czech Republic!
Czech Republic 2017
With another internal selection, Czech Republic decided to send the jazz singer Martina Bárta to Eurovision with the understated track My Turn. It was a ballad style song but with Martina behind the vocals, the song developed into a jazz style ballad. The stage performance was simple, putting the focus onto the song, but unfortunately it was the song that was divisive, with some fans loving it, and some fans preferring other songs on the night. As such, the Czech Republic was once again left in the semi-final, but in 13th place with 83 points.
Czech Republic 2018
This leads to the true turning point for the Czech Republic, where Mikolas Josef was chosen through a national final to represent the nation with the self-written song Lie To Me. Unsurprisingly he won the national final with a landslide, boasting the most contemporary entry not only in the national final, but in the history of the Czech participation at Eurovision. It was an upbeat song performed by a young, but incredibly driven and confident performer, and from when it was released as the official Czech entry, we knew it was bound for success. At Eurovision, we saw Mikolas face some hurdles, including a back injury that led to an overhaul of the stage performance, but with a song like this, qualification was certain! In the end, Mikolas qualified in at 3rd place, and overall he finished in 6th place in the final, meaning that he achieved the best placing of any Czech representative!
So now you’ve seen all three performances, it’s time to vote for your Best of the Bunch!
If you want more Best of the Bunch from the Czech Republic check out our original series:
If you want to check out who made our Ultimate Eurovision, check it out here: